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The Guide to Computer Training listed its Top 50 Open Source blogs on Tuesday, and included in the 50 — at number 20, no less (though I realized later that the list is in alphabetical order, so I didn’t really finish way ahead of Slashdot) — is yours truly and this blog.

After I picked myself up off the floor, I have to say I am beyond honored. It’s good to be in the company of these folks who regularly write about FOSS, GNU/Linux and Linux, especially Bruce Byfield, whose essays masquerading as blog posts appear thanks to Linux Magazine.

However, there are several blogs which stand head and shoulders above this one that deserve to be on that list which, for whatever reason, didn’t make make the cut.

So if you’re here from the Guide to Computer Training site, welcome, first of all; second, you need to add these five blogs — five which come immediately to mind, though there are many more — to the list that the previous site provides (as well as other blogs which readers are urged to add to the list in comments below):

Click, by Steven Rosenberg: This blog, which appears on the Los Angeles Daily News’ site, is always chock full of information as Steven traverses the Free/Open Source landscape using both GNU/Linux and BSD. Most, if not all, of his Debian/Ubuntu adventures are very informative and I’ve learned something from all of his blogs, even when I’ve disagreed with him (which, to my knowledge, has only been once).

Shallow Thoughts by Akkana Peck: Don’t be misled by the title — this is far and away the most educational blog over a wide variety of FOSS programs and issues that I have ever read. And it’s not the blog so much as Akkana writes about — and links to — her tutorials in the blog. All her tutorials are absolute gems, and our Christmas cards last year were produced, in large part, thanks to her GIMP tutorial. Since I live just “over the hill” from the Silicon Valley, I get the bonus of hearing her speak when she addresses local LUGs. But if you can find talks she has done, like her presentation on “Make Your Old Laptop a Ferrari” she gave at the Southern California Linux Expo earlier this year, it’s time well spent.

Blog of Helios by Ken Starks: To say that working with Ken is an honor would be a gross understatement. I met Ken when I gave him $10 toward putting Tux on the nose of an Indy car during the 2007 Indianapolis 500. Ken came to California during Lindependence in 2008, where we invited the entire town of Felton, California, to a church hall to see Linux and take home a Live CD or two. Now, Ken is giving underprivileged kids in the Austin, Texas, area a leg-up in providing Linux boxes to them through the HeliOS Project. Ken’s blog points out the highs and lows of bringing FOSS to the world, and his down-home humor that’s reminiscent of fellow Texan Jim Hightower — oooh, he’s going to hate me for saying that — is always a plus.

Dissociated Press by Joe “Zonker” Brockmeier: Zonker’s claim to fame, other than a nickname he picked up in college, is that he was the OpenSUSE Community Manager for the last couple of years. But what’s probably more interesting — and thankfully more important to those of us promoting FOSS — is that Joe’s talent and skill as a journalist precede, and thankfully now follows, his gig at OpenSUSE. He could be writing for any publication on any topic, but thankfully he’s writing about FOSS.

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols‘ Computerworld Blog: More times than not, Steven is first out of the gate with FOSS news and developments, which alone would make his blog a must read. What’s more — and I mean this as a compliment — Steven’s not afraid to “go off the reservation” and write about non-FOSS issues as well. Everything on the blog is written with an artesian depth of understanding that points to his wide experience, and I get the sense that he embraces, Mencken-like, being FOSS’s resident curmudgeon. But I could be wrong . . . .

There are others that deserve to make the cut as well, and I’d urge you to add them to the comment list below.

And thanks, Guide to Computer Training — I will try to live up to your standards in being one of the Top 50.

(Fedora ambassador Larry Cafiero runs Redwood Digital Research in Felton, California, and is an associate member of the Free Software Foundation.)

Whew. Now that Lindependence is on a roll — you can follow that here — I have a chance to get back to my regularly scheduled blog as Larry the Free Software Guy.

Hope I wasn’t gone for too long.

In playing catch-up, there are a couple of things that I wanted to highlight.

First, there’s Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols recent blog item about how, in the collapsing economy, GNU/Linux makes sense for computer users both at home and in business. It’s a great read, and it’s right on the mark.

Also, there’s a way-better-than-average interview with Linus Torvalds by Richard Morris here. Linus and I have something in common other than a passion for FOSS — we are also both sons of journalists (although I still happen to be one, but aspire to be on the digital end of things these days). Plus it outlines a couple of perspectives about how open source does things right, and how proprietary developers — the Ballmers and Gates of the world — don’t get it. Bet a chair flies in Redmond once the interview makes it up there.

Also, the video is rolling: Christian Einfeldt of the Digital Tipping Point has been filming the proceedings in Felton during Lindependence, and you can find some of the raw footage here and here. The former is Ken Starks and me doing an interview with Christian, and the latter is me promoting Lindependence at the Felton Farmers Market. And according to Ken, I look like Cheech Marin, but I’ll let you all decide.

(Larry Cafiero runs HeliOS Solutions West in Felton, California, and is an associate member of the Free Software Foundation.)